Awesome.
I tried a little wiggle, wincing when Bjarni’s knot held tight, keeping me locked securely in place.
Bjarni grunted and slid his hand to my ass to hold me still. “Settle down, sweetie. You’ll hurt yourself.”
His easy composure only made my humiliation at being observed in such an intimate situation deepen, but he was right—I wasn’t going anywhere, no matter how much I wanted to regain just a smidgen of dignity. And pants.
Instead I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes, sinking inward.
It was surprisingly easy this time, the golden light rising to greet me within just a few breaths. It felt different than when Modi had guided me. Clearer. Stronger.
Freya’s advice had shown true, just like when she’d told me how to heal Magni.
Show me Loki.
It was a silent command, and I half-expected nothing to happen, but then the world tilted, the golden light opening like a vortex underneath me—and I fell.
Or I would have, if a harsh tug between my legs didn’t yank me back.
I whimpered and flailed, looking for purchase, but strong bands of iron seemed to close around my torso, taking the pressure off and holding me up, and a soothing rumble vibrated from all sides.
Below me the vortex still yawned, spreading ever wider, and I squinted as something blue and green appeared in the opening.
Was that… Earth?
It zoomed in closer, giving me a nauseating sense of vertigo as we seemed to barrel toward the North American continent. Specks of lights grew larger into cities, the vortex taking us west over the Rockies and down, down, down, until the twinkle directly below expanded into millions of lights, and suddenly, there was the snow-covered ground.
The world jerked and shifted again, zooming along streets, weaving through traffic at breakneck speeds, until finally it stopped in front of the peeling green door of what looked like a butcher shop. On the floor, two ravens were picking at a piece of frozen, raw meat half-buried in the snow.
“Arni? Magga?” I said, more startled that I could recognize the Lokissons' talking ravens than at their presence in what I was pretty sure was Seattle.
They both looked up from their food then and into the vortex.
Magga cocked her head, giving me an inquisitive look. Then she squawked a sharp bark of laughter. “Oh, Loki is going to love this.”
A hard jerk sent the world spinning before I could ask what she meant. Slowly, like I was moving through water, the green door opened for me and I passed through, rings shimmering in the air around me as I did.
And then I was inside, and there he was: Loki.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him. I remembered him from Saga’s trial. Yet staring at the man sitting in a wingback armchair with a book in his hand, it was clear he’d taken on a more human appearance. A sort of disguise, I guessed.
He was a tall man, with hair as dark as Grim’s and features that reminded me of all three of his sons. The otherworldly glow he’d had during Saga’s trial was missing, and the thought that maybe my mates and their brothers were also in human disguises made me blink. Did they also have divine forms I hadn’t seen?
Loki’s head jerked up, pulling me from my musings. He frowned and lifted his hand, and a shimmer spread around it.
In response, the golden vortex that had brought me here swirled around me, blurring out the image of the god.
It felt like I was sucked through time and space by my navel until finally I blinked my eyes open to stare at Bjarni.
“You all right, sweetie?" he rumbled.
I nodded dazedly, only then realizing he’d wrapped both arms around me. “You stopped me from falling?”
“Falling?” he snorted. “I stopped you from splitting my lip open again and ripping yourself apart on my knot. Maybe wait with magic tricks until we’re not tied next time, hmm?”
He glanced darkly to his side, and when I followed his gaze, I saw Modi standing by the altar, arms folded across his wide chest.
“He’s in Seattle,” I said, turning back to Bjarni. “Magga and Arni are with him.”
“Huh,” he said. “So that’s why they haven’t come back yet. Father must have told them to stay by his side.”
“Seattle?” Modi said, wrinkling his nose. “Is that in Midgard?”
“The New World,” Bjarni answered, checking me over for any injuries I may have sustained during my little magic experiment.
“Fuck,” Modi sighed. “Bifrost will land us in… What do the humans call it nowadays? Norge? We don’t have time to find passage on a boat to the New World.”
“A boat?” I repeated, momentarily stunned out of my discomfort by the realization that Modi had zero clue when it came to humanity’s recent progress. “How long has it been since you were on Earth?”
“A few centuries,” he said, frowning at me. “Why? Are your boats faster now?”
Nine
Annabel
Bifrost glowed multihued against the night sky, the darkness surrounding us doing nothing to dim the otherworldly bridge.
I stared in wonder as we approached the golden tower spiraling up at its end, feeling another touch of awe at the splendor that was Asgard. Given everything I’d gone through since leaving Iceland, it was sometimes hard to remember how mind-breaking it was to be traipsing around in freaking Asgard, home of the gods, the need for survival outshining the wonders surrounding me.
But Bifrost? Bifrost made my breath catch in my throat with its sheer beauty.
Legend had it that the rainbow connected Asgard with the human world—and seeing as we were about to use it to travel to Norway, it seemed legend was right on this one.
“We can’t use that nifty map of yours?” I murmured to Bjarni as we walked a few paces behind Modi. “Might get us closer to Seattle.”
He shook his head. “No portals showed up within Asgard. And, no offense to your mate, but I don’t particularly trust his brother with our family secrets.”
I was pretty sure there was plenty of offense to be had, should I have been so inclined, but I couldn’t exactly fault him. The way the brothers acted around each other, it was obvious any current truce was tentative.
When we got to the tower, Modi stopped by the closed port. “Heimdall!” he called, voice booming.
“Heimdall?” I asked.
“The guardian of Bifrost,” Bjarni rumbled. “And a real prick.”
Modi grunted, and I arched both eyebrows. If these two agreed…
We waited several minutes before the clanking of a deadbolt opening sounded from behind the port and it swung open, revealing a pale-skinned alpha with a tumble of golden curls falling over his broad shoulders.
He looked at our small party, lip curling in disgust at the sight of Bjarni. “What is this, Thorsson? A human omega and the spawn of the betrayer? Am I to take it you have brought me a sacrifice?”
“Not exactly. We require passage to Midgard. It is an urgent matter. Please step aside,” Modi said, voice calm but full of command.
Heimdall didn’t move. “I, and only I, am responsible for alerting Asgard of the Jotunns’ coming, and therefore I decide who gets to pass. I am not letting that half-blood use Bifrost on the word of a godling who still lives in his father’s shadow. Now get your daddy to come vouch for you, or go home. Get!”